CT GOP scuttles new disclosure rules for delegates

Updated 10:55 pm, Sunday, March 25, 2012

Former Congressman Christopher Shays, pictured in February 2012, is seeking the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.

Former Congressman Christopher Shays, pictured in February 2012, is seeking the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.

Photo: Carol Kaliff

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Republican Senate hopeful Linda McMahon smiles during her first news conference since announcing her second bid for U.S. Senate in March 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Republican Senate hopeful Linda McMahon smiles during her first news conference since announcing her second bid for U.S. Senate in March 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Photo: Jessica Hill, Associated Press

CT GOP scuttles new disclosure rules for delegates

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A rules change that would have forced state GOP convention delegates to disclose any pecuniary relationships they have with the candidates seeking their party's endorsement is dead on arrival. The decision gives new ammunition to a number of prominent Republicans who claim that votes will once again go to the highest bidder at the upcoming conclave.

The Republican State Central Committee effectively mothballed a proposal last week that would have required each campaign to submit a list of all paid staffers and subcontractors serving in a dual capacity as delegates to the state party before the May convention.

While not applying to vendors hired by the candidates, the proposal called for delegates who figuratively wear two hats to don badges on the floor of the convention in Hartford disclosing their allegiances.

By a vote of 42-10 at its March 13 meeting, the governing body of the state party declined to forward the recommendations to rules committee of the convention, renewing allegations that the GOP is in the tank for deep-pocketed candidates.

Former U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays is pledging to abide by the spirit of the proposal going into his convention bout with GOP Senate rival Linda McMahon, who captured the Republican endorsement two years ago when she ran for the same office and lost the general election to Democrat Richard Blumenthal.

"McMahon is trying to buy votes, and she's one of the reasons I got into this race," Shays said. "Last election, I thought, what is my party thinking? She literally bought the convention. And she lost miserably in the general election and brought all the statewide candidates down with her, and she's back at it."

McMahon's spokeswoman Erin Isaac plugged an economic rival plan recently rolled out by the campaign and called on Shays to focus his efforts on how to help people who are hurting financially and put them back to work.

"I'm not sure if it's Linda's plan to cut middle class taxes or the mounting list of 120 Republican Town Committee chairs and vice chairs that has the congressman resorting to negative campaign tactics this week, but either way, I encourage him to check out www.lindasplan.com," Isaac said in a statement to Greenwich Time.

In addition to a list of paid staffers and subcontractors, Shays said he will submit the names of vendors used by his campaign who are also delegates to the party.

"No one will wonder," Shays said. "I'm not going to be silent about this stuff. The Republican Party I know and have always believed in cares about morals and ethics.

"I want the party that cares about morals and ethics."

Connecticut GOP Chairman Jerry Labriola Jr. defended the party's handling of the issue, saying that he delegated the task of crafting recommendations to several State Central Committee members.

"I allowed the matter to be fully considered and debated," Labriola said. "Nothing was swept under the rug. The members have spoken, and we will now turn to the important matters at hand, like raising money and recruiting great candidates."

Labriola did not take a position on the proposed rules changes.

"The delegates to our conventions must now put aside distractions and use their best judgment to nominate Republicans with the greatest chance of electability this fall," Labriola said.

Joseph Visconti, a West Hartford Republican and former town council member who twice ran for Congress unsuccessfully, slammed the GOP's reluctance to even allow the proposal to go forward to the rules committee.

"We had an opportunity to impose those laws on ourselves, and we failed as a party," Visconti said. "Integrity was sent to the gallows."

Characterizing himself as a Shays supporter who backed McMahon in 2010, Visconti said he was struck by the number of delegates hired by McMahon to make T-shirts or signs during the last convention.

"She's a major driver," Visconti said. "I just think it's unhealthy. We may lose a candidate that feels cheated because the process wasn't really open and fair."

A person close to the McMahon campaign claimed that some of the very Republicans who stand to be delegates at the upcoming convention and approached McMahon for work opportunities are now on Shays' payroll.

Among the State Central Committee members who voted against sending the proposal to the rules committee was Edward Dadakis, of Greenwich, who characterized the requirements as unwieldy and difficult to enforce.

"I think for those town committees who are concerned about having delegates who work for a candidate, they need to handle their delegate-nominating process accordingly and not elect delegates who work for candidates," said Dadakis, who also represents parts of Stamford and New Canaan on the State Central Committee.

Dadakis' recollection of the 2010 convention, where McMahon edged former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons and financial talking head Peter Schiff after a number of delegates flipped, contrasted with that of Shays.

"I saw a convention two years ago that was well run," Dadakis said. "There's wheeling and dealing at every convention. Whether you're being paid or not, the room is filled with a thousand politicians. Politicians wheel and deal."

Critics of the disclosure requirements pointed out that the vast majority of the people in the convention hall commonly wear T-shirts, stickers and baseball caps with the candidates' names on them in the first place.

"What the suggestion was, you basically wear a scarlet letter that you're employed by a candidate," Dadakis said. "If the person refuses to wear it, what would you do?"

Michael Vitali, the Wallingford Republican in charge of the special panel that crafted the proposal, said the purpose of the requirements was to address a "perceived problem."

Party rules already require campaign staff to wear credentials on the convention floor, but there is a loophole, according Vitali.

"If you're actually a delegate and you are a staffer from a campaign, you are exempted from that rule because you are a duly credentialed delegate," Vitali said.

Vitali does not regard the panel's work as being in vain.

"I think it represents an excellent triumph of transparent decision making by the Republican Party of Connecticut," Vitali said.

Brian K. Hill, who is also running for Senate on the GOP side, characterized the outcome of the vote as a disservice to the party.

"This is a no-brainer," Hill said. "If you don't have anything to hide, there's nothing wrong with transparency."

Justin Bernier, making his second bid for Congress in the 5th District as a Republican, echoed Hill's comments in a statement to Greenwich Time.

"Mark Twain said that it's impossible to convince a man of something if his paycheck depends on him believing the opposite," Bernier said. "Every Republican in Connecticut has a right to know which convention delegates are getting paychecks from which candidates. We need to be the party of truth and transparency -- not the party of payoffs."

Sean Murphy, a Woodbury Republican and former State Central Committee member, slammed the convention process.

"I think the whole convention system should be thrown out to begin with it because too many people are making money on it," Murphy said. "It just comes down to I want an honest process. That's selling our democracy, and I don't find that OK."

Murphy said he confronted former state Sen. Louis DeLuca at a recent Republican Town Committee meeting in Woodbury about DeLuca's fitness to be a delegate to this year's convention.

Murphy said that DeLuca's T-shirt company earned $140,000 from McMahon's campaign in 2010, prompting a question about whether the former lawmaker is reprising his role as a vendor.

"He told me it was none of my business," Murphy said. "I personally don't think you should be a delegate if you've received any financial compensation from a candidate for that convention."

DeLuca bristled at Murphy's criticism in an interview with Greenwich Time, saying that his support for McMahon predated her using his T-shirt company as a vendor. He acknowledged that the company is making some T-shirts for McMahon in the current campaign, but said it is not to the same extent as the last time.

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"I am insulted from somebody like Sean Murphy implying that I can be bought," DeLuca said. "It's been my experience in life that people who've accused people of doing things have probably done it themselves. I've sold a number of things to Democrats, too. Does that mean they've bought me, too?"